Updating project / item template icons and descriptions

[niels9001]

ORIGINAL PR (with comments + feedback): #4924

Closes: #4923

The following changes are included:

Updates to the Windows App SDK and WinUI logo
The default Windows icon that was used to represent WASDK is now replaced with a dedicated Windows App SDK logo. The old WinUI logo has been updated to the latest version.

Updates to project and item template titles and descriptions

• Replacing Windows UI Library (WinUI 3) with WinUI 3, as this is the product naming we are using across our docs and communication.
• Following the WPF / UWP template naming conventions starting with the framework name and then the project title. E.g. Blank App, Packaged (WinUI 3 in Desktop) => WinUI Blank App (Packaged)
• Changing Custom Control to Templated Control, which is the correct name for this item template.
• Making descriptions less verbose.

Updates to project and item template icons
Instead of using the default WinUI logo for every template, we are now using individual icons following the Visual Studio design guidelines for iconography (and similar to what WPF and UWP have been using). This helps the developer to understand what the template is about and what language it's using.

Mock-up: original vs. new

Mock-up: original vs. new

[jbgski]

Great work on the icons, they look fantastic, especially in the Visual Studio's redesigned UI. New project template names (e.g. WinUI Blank App) are nice too :)

However, as someone who does both UWP and WinUI dev at the same time, I'd really avoid removing the "(WinUI 3)" suffixes. The icons are not enough to separate between UWP and WinUI item types like Blank Page, especially when using search, and this will cause extra confusion for new developers

(also, there's a typo in the screenshot, maybe it's fixed already - Resources File says .rews instead of .resw)

[Sergio0694]

"I'd really avoid removing the "(WinUI 3)" suffixes"

We've updated all UWP templates in Visual Studio (17.13), so this is actually consistent. We will have:

• WinUI Blank App
• UWP Blank App
• UWP Blank App (.NET Native)

So it'll be pretty easy to tell them apart 🙂

---

@niels9001 I like the new icons, but they look very different than the ones for all other various project types in Visual Studio. Are all other default icons also being updated in Visual Studio to match this new thinner/rounded style? Otherwise I feel like they would look a bit out of place. It'd be nice if we could ensure they're all consistent with each other. Is this being considered?

[niels9001]

"I'd really avoid removing the "(WinUI 3)" suffixes"

We've updated all UWP templates in Visual Studio (17.13), so this is actually consistent. We will have:

• WinUI Blank App
• UWP Blank App
• UWP Blank App (.NET Native)

So it'll be pretty easy to tell them apart 🙂

@niels9001 I like the new icons, but they look very different than the ones for all other various project types in Visual Studio. Are all other default icons also being updated in Visual Studio to match this new thinner/rounded style? Otherwise I feel like they would look a bit out of place. It'd be nice if we could ensure they're all consistent with each other. Is this being considered?

Correct, with the naming we tried to align to UWP/WPF as much as possible to be consistent and recognizable.

@Sergio0694 With regards to the icon style; these icons were designed by the VS design team. With the recent Fluent Design update for VS2022, iconography is being updated as well. My assumption is that the style that these new WinUI icons are using, is the new style for (new) icons going forward for VS.

@jbgski Thanks, fixed the type in the mockup.

[jbgski]

We've updated all UWP templates in Visual Studio (17.13), so this is actually consistent.

@Sergio0694 I was talking about file templates like "Blank Page", "Resource Dictionary". AFAIK those aren't cross-compatible with UWP due to the different namespaces in .xaml.cs files (WUX/MUX), so there could be some issues when someone accidentally creates a WinUI 3 Blank Page in an UWP project or vice versa, as there will be no distinction between UWP/WinUI file templates outside of icons

[Sergio0694]

@jbgski you should only get compatible item templates showing up, based on project types. For UWP projects, you'll only get UWP item templates, and for WinUI projects you'll only get WinUI item templates. Not sure I'm following what the issue is here exactly. You mentioned that mixed scenarios would be confusing, but using both UWP and WinUI XAML in the same project is not a supported configuration (and it won't even work, because CsWinRT can only project one mode at a time).

[jbgski]

@Sergio0694 Sorry if it wasn't clear, I wasn't talking about mixed project scenarios.

As you can see here in my UWP project, in the file template selector, when I search for "page" (strona) I see both UWP page templates and WinUI page templates:

If the (WinUI 3) text is removed from the item templates, the only difference between UWP and WinUI templates will be the icon, which isn't clear enough:

[sylveon]

you should only get compatible item templates showing up, based on project types. For UWP projects, you'll only get UWP item templates, and for WinUI projects you'll only get WinUI item templates.

This is definitely incorrect. Here's what I see when I try adding a new item to a C++ WinUI project.

The ones with the Windows logo are UWP templates. I made this exact mistake earlier today of adding a UWP item to a WinUI project accidentally. Notice that the UWP blank page is selected by default.

[sylveon]

Here's the same for a brand new cppwinrt UWP app:

I also see WinUI 3 templates. @Sergio0694